Isn't It Weird That...

Some weird things we noticed about bipartisanship and partisanship.

1. Isn't it weird that ... in a bipartisan deal announced this week, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray secured money ($65 million) for the Columbia River Crossing project from the U.S. Congress—a supposed polarized icecap of partisanship where Tea Party idealogues routinely shut the government down—but the supposedly collaborative and bipartisan "Majority Coalition Caucus" in this Washington shut down any CRC money because of idelogical opposition to light rail?

The line item for CRC in the state budget: Zero.

2. Isn't it weird that ... a GOP that's desperately trying to upgrade its image with minorities, women, and youth sends its only statewide elected official on the West Coast, Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, into battle against a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote when their getting their driver's licenses?

Wyman's policy director, Katie Blinn cites fiscal and logistical problems with processing the applications and summarizes to PubliCola: "This creates a fair amount of manual work for the counties, when this generation is more likely to register online anyway once they are 18 and eligible."

The bill has 26 sponsors in the house and nine in the senate, all Democrats. It is sponsored by Rep. Steve Bergquist (D-11, Renton) in the house and Sen. Andy Billig (D-3, Spokane) in the senate.

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